Volume 31, Number 1 - Fall 1991
Lucinda Jane Olivar - James Madison Archer
By Ida Crawford Madison
For related material, use in consultation with Oliver history in the following issues of the Quarterly: Spring 1988; Spring 1989; Winter 1990; Spring 1990; and
Spring 1991.
Lucinda Jane Oliver, 6th child and 3rd daughter of James Oliver and Rachel Holman, was born about 1821. The census records of 1850 and 1880 give her birthplace as Indiana, probably just across the state line from Boone Co., KY where most of the older Oliver children were born.
Lucinda married James Madison Archer in Missouri about 1840. James gave his birthplace on the 1880 Wise Co., Texas census as Tennessee and that of his father as North Carolina. James is thought to be the brother of Francis Archer who married Lucinda’s brother John, and of William Archer who married Lucinda’s sister Abigail. Elisha and Ann Archer appear to be the parents of these Archer siblings. Probate and tax records in Missouri link William Archer to Elisha and Ann Archer as he was the administrator of Elisha’s estate. Though James is not listed in the will, one minor listed is Moses Archer and it is known that James had a brother Moses. Also James Archer is listed on tax records with William and Ann Archer as the owner of a horse.
James and Lucinda were the parents of at least 7 children. The 1850 Taney Co., MO, census lists sons J. A. age 10, J. F. age 8, and daughters Martha E. age 7, A. J. age 6, and Mary E. age 1.
The two boys are thought to be named James, Julius or Julian. These two boys both died during the Civil War, having served from Texas. A Pvt. J. M. Archer served in the Grapevine (TX) Mounted Riflemen, 20th Brigade. Another listing is for Pvt. J.F.M. Archer listed in the Mounted Rifle Co. under the command of Col. Wm. B. Sims in the Confederate Army. He enlisted in Tarrant Co., TX. And still another record of this same J.F.M. Archer shows that he died 17 December 1861 of disease at Fort Gibson, near Muskogee, OK, at age 20 while still under Col. Sims’ command.
J. M. Archer/Archy/Archey is found on the Tar-rant Co., Texas tax rolls beginning in 1857. From 1857 he is listed at various times with 260 acres of land and with no land, however, he always had horses and sometimes cattle and sheep that were taxed.
The next record of this family is an 1867 Tarrant Co., Texas voters list. James M. Archer is listed as having lived in Texas 15 years and in the county 13 years. That would mean James and Lucinda brought their family to Texas in 1852.
The 1860 census was taken in Tarrant Co., but then was lost, so there is no record of them on that census. Mter having checked the 1870 census of Texas, Missouri and Arkansas, I find no record of them in the 1870 census either. Since some of the family were back in Missouri that year, perhaps James and Lucinda were traveling and were missed. However from family records, we know that James and Lucinda added two more sons to their family in Texas. Thomas Jefferson Archer was born 4 January 1858 in Grapevine, Tarrant Co., TX, and Robert Lee Archer was born 6 October 1863 also in Grapevine, TX.
The 1880 Texas census finds James and Lucinda farming in Wise Co., TX with only son Robert L., age 17 at home. Son Thomas J. Archer and his wife Martha Jane Stewart Archer were living in Tarrant County where her parents Josh and Polly Stewart also resided. Josh had served in the Confederate Army with several of his brothers under J.E.B. Stewart. They served from Missouri where his father, Evan, had a large farm in Polk Co., near Bolivar. One source says that James Madison Archer’s brother, Moses, was a neighbor of the Stewarts in Polk Co. and thus the Stewarts had known of the Archers before coming to Texas.
Thomas J. and Martha Archer had sons Quincy M, age 1 year and Albert L., age 1 month on the 1880 census. T. J. was also a farmer, following the family tradition. He later became a Methodist minister.
In Montague Co., TX just north and west of Tarrant Co., Robert Lee married Jennie Lee Stewart, the sister of T. J.’s wife, Martha, on 5 July 1888.
It is thought that by this time the family had begun a northward migration to Oklahoma Territory. T. J. and Martha Archer lost a child, Laura May, to a typhoid epidemic in Wise County, north of Montague, in January of 1888. They had another child born in Spanish Fort, Texas, 24 December 1888. Spanish Fort is located on the Red River just across from Oklahoma. James and Lucinda are believed to have died about 1888, perhaps in the same typhoid epidemic that claimed their young grandchild. They may be buried in Wise County, however no record has been found of the death or burial.
Robert Lee (Bob) and Jennie had their first child, John Thomas (Tom) in March, 1889 in Montague Co., TX. Child number two, Anna "Alice" was born in July 1891 in Indian Territory, OK.
Bob and Jennie Archer are listed on the 1900 Oklahoma census as residing in the Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory. By the time of this census they had three sons and three daughters. Eventually they had eight children. The area where they lived later became the Bailey Community in Grady Co., OK
Bob died 5 February 1927 in Rush Springs of consumption and is buried in the Bailey Cemetery. Jennie died 28 July 1949 in Marlow, OK and is buried next to Bob. Bob’s sister, Martha E. Archer Fuller, who died in 1926 is also buried in the Bailey Cemetery. Thomas J. Archer died July 3, 1949 in Strong City, OK
Bob donated land on his property for the Bailey School which many of his children and grandchildren attended. Many descendants of Bob and Jennie still live in the Marlow, Rush Springs, and Bailey area of Oklahoma.
Family of Lucinda Jane Oliver, daughter of James and Rachel Holman Oliver, and James Madison Archer son of Elisha Ann _____ Archer.
Descendants of James and Rachel Oliver who settled in Taney County, c. 1825, met for the 3rd Oliver Family Reunion in Missouri on June 29 and 30, 1991. A family breakfast on June29 gathered 47 descendants and a picnic on Sunday afternoon brought 80 Oliver relatives together.
More information is gathered each year and a genealogy to seventh generations has been recorded for 10 of the 12 children of James and Rachel. The family reunion will be held each year, the third weekend of June. For more information, call 417-334-3273.
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